The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2

Part 7

"And I love you!" Alilia laughed, so full of joy and love that tears filled her eyes.

For more than half an hour they continued relaxing on the couch; Alilia in wordless emotional communion with her unborn daughter, the twins still sending the careful trickle of psionic power. That's how Mark and Talia found them when they returned home.

"Hello my loves, how are you doing?" Mark asked as he and Talia picked up Reggie and Helemia, and snuggled in beside Alilia.

"Just take a Reading of me, lovers." Alilia smiled. "It'll be easier than explaining it."

"Oh! Oh wow!" Talia exclaimed as she cast the Reading.

"Exactly!" Alilia giggled. "These wondrous children have exceeded our expectations yet again. And now that you're here, maybe Reggie can tell me what he found so funny earlier? And how did you know I would name her Valentia? I hadn't even decided yet."

"It's a prophecy." Reggie giggled.

"Oh? And what if I decide to name her something else?" Alilia teased.

"You won't." Reggie confidently declared.

Alilia opened her mouth to reply, then reconsidered it. "You're right. I won't." she chuckled. "Valentia. It fits her too well to choose another name. But I'm sure it wasn't her name that had you laughing like that. You said she was going to be something. What?”

"I'd rather not say. It's embarrassing." Reggie admitted as he blushed a bright pink.

"Oh? Well if you don't tell me, I'll tickle you until you do!" Alilia declared, and did so with vigor, eliciting peals of helpless laughter from the squirming baby.

"All right, enough! I'll tell you!" he called.

"Ha! You're lucky you can surrender by psionics!" Helemia teased with a giggle. "She was getting you too good for you to talk otherwise, if you could talk that is!"

"Tell me now, or I'll get you again!" Alilia warned with a grin, her fingers poised over his ribs.

"Okay, okay! She's my destined love! She's going to be my wife!" Reggie giggled. "I told you it was embarrassing!"

The three adults were thunderstruck into speechlessness for a very long moment.

"But... But, she's your half-sister!" Talia protested.

"Hey, it's a prophecy, I didn't choose it!" Reggie laughed. “You can pretend it's not true if you want, but it won't matter. Whether it's in twenty years or twenty thousand, sooner or later she will be my wife. It's our destiny. She's my destined love, and I'm hers."

"Well that's good news, I guess." Mark chuckled a moment later. "It means we know you'll both be fine at least until you're old enough to get married. With the demons coming, that's a good thing to know." "And who's my destined love going to be, prophecy boy?" Helemia asked as she reached over to tickle Reggie.

"How should I know?!" he laughed, pushing her hand aside and trying to tickle her back. "I don't just get a prophecy whenever I want to, you know!"

"Tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me!" Helemia demanded as the tickle contest turned into a wrestling match and spilled off the adults' laps onto the couch beside them. "I'm gonna keep asking until you tell me tell me tell me tell me!"

"I can't!" he laughed as they struggled. "I don't know so I can't..."

Suddenly they both froze. Then Helemia gave a squeal of anguish that was almost a scream as she climbed off the sofa as fast as she could and ran to the twins' shared bedroom.

"Helemia?!" Talia inquired with sudden worry as she set off after her daughter.

Mark and Alilia looked to Reggie with concerned eyes.

"It's her secret and I won't tell it." Reggie declared with determination, then his expression became more introspective.

"Well how about that. I'm an oracle." he softly declared.

"So you did get a prophesy about her destined love? You know who it is?" Mark asked. "And there's nothing else wrong with her?"

"She's just upset, she'll be okay in a while. But yah, I saw who it is. And as I said, I won't tell. If you tickle me about this one, I'll just get mad."

"Huh." Mark grunted, having no other response.

"The answer you got to her question," Alilia inquired, "Was it cryptic and hard to figure out?"

"No. I just suddenly knew exactly who it was, and then Helemia did too."

Alilia's brows furrowed as she considered his answer.

"Why? Why does that matter?" he asked.

"There's never been an oracle who could give a plain and easily-understood answer to any question about the future. And there's been very few who could reliably give an answer of any kind on demand. Often they'll take days or weeks to get an answer, if they get one at all.

"When we get out of this time-bubble, Tithian and the other precognitives in The Just Alliance's Intelligence Brigade will definitely want to spend some time with you. The information you could give us might be decisive in the coming struggle."

"Oh." Reggie said, for want of any other reply. A few moments later he had a big yawn, and climbed off the sofa.

"We'll have to stop giving Valentia the energy pretty soon. We're getting pretty tired." he told Alilia.

"I understand. And again, thank you, thank you both so very much."

"You're welcome. We'll do it as much as we can, until she can do it herself.

"Goodnight."

Mark reached out and picked him up, and hugged him with all his love. "Goodnight, my son. I'll come in with you and say goodnight to your sister."

Alilia joined their hug, and gave Reggie a kiss on the cheek.

Mark stood and carried him to the bedroom, where they found Talia sitting on the low bed with Helemia in her arms. The girl had stopped crying, but still had tear tracks down her plump baby cheeks. "Don't ever have a prophesy about me ever again." she told her brother without looking.

"I'll try not to. I'm sorry." he replied as Mark sat with him beside the girls, and put an arm around Talia.

"Okay." Helemia nodded. "Goodnight then."

"You sure you're all right?" Mark asked her as he gently caressed her cheek with a fingertip. "You know you can always talk to us about anything, and we'll always do anything we can to help you."

"I know. I'll be fine." Helemia replied. "There's nothing anyone can do to help, and I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay. Sleep well then. We love you both with all our hearts."

"We love you too."

Mark and Talia tucked their children into bed, and left them with kisses on their cheeks.

Before they fell asleep, Reggie and Helemia shared a few private thoughts.

"We should start trying to act more normal." Reggie decided. "They're really getting very worried about us."

"Yes. You're right." Helemia agreed. "But do you really think we can?"

"I don't know."

"Reggie didn't say who it was?" Talia asked as they paused in the living room and Mark gently lifted Alilia's heavily pregnant form from the couch.

"No, and he said he'd never tell, that it was her secret." Mark told her as they went to their bedroom.

"Helemia said she'll never tell too." Talia said, a bit of worry apparent in her voice as she closed their door behind them.

"I admit I'm burning with curiosity to know who it is!" Alilia said as they climbed into bed. "And I don't know what to think about my daughter being destined to marry her half-brother!"

"I think we should ask them to keep that information private." Mark mused as they cuddled up to him. "There's still a big taboo about that sort of thing amongst most of the races. But according to the laws that've been put in place, at my suggestion no less, it's not illegal unless someone can show that there's been harm caused by it. If it's really their destiny and there's nothing we can do about it, it'll be up to them to decide when the time comes whether they want to keep their relationship secret, or face the disapproval of most of the world.

"Personally, I'm not going to go out of my way to either encourage it or discourage it. If it happens, I suppose I'll do my best to support their decision."

"Yes, I suppose that's the best we can do." Alilia nodded.

"Sweet source above!" Talia quietly cursed. "Reggie was no more than embarrassed to admit that he was destined to marry his half-sister! I can't imagine who Helemia could be destined to love, that would produce such a reaction from them about it!"

There was silence for a minute as they considered that.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐